If the patient is on a ventilation machine, can the hospital pull the plug without the family/friends consent?

Pt (mid 30's) is in a coma in a ciyt hospital. Have no family members in the USA only close friends. Can the plug be pulled and her organs be taken without concent? No Known Diseases, possible brain dead due to bleeding.

No, not without a court order or a directive from the patient prior to the incident that had them get in that condition. Hospitals do not "pull the plug" to harvest organs without patient/family permission.

Terri L

This is so unfair

Isis

It's done many times. It's very expensive to keep someone on life support. I would suggest you get a family member to contact them as soon as possible to express their wishes. With no family around the doctor/hospital can make that decision. It depends on the hospital policy-I would ask this question of the hospital officials-particularly the doctor.

~miss mississippi~

No they can't! Won't the family be coming to visit? If so, it's a very generous thing to be an organ donor. I plan to.

ckm1956

I seem to recall that there are a couple of states that allow "pulling the plug" if there is no family.

Unfortunately, friends don't legally "count" in this situation.

CJBig

Absolutely not.

kim_in_craig

The hospital has to first try and find a family member. Then after a certain amount of time (every state has a different amount of time), where I live it's 60 days. The treating physician can make a request to the hospitals attorney, every hospital has one, to get a court order to pull the plug. After that it's up to the courts.

cobenour30

There has to be a living will and no friends cannot pull the plug, especially if she doesnt have any thing saying she doesn't want to be put on life support. Family member could argue the fact but it takes a long time for it to happen.. Next of kin can only be the one to have it removed.

BabygirlSr

no!!!

swomedicineman

Ethically no. Has every effort been exhausted in trying to reach a family member? If so the important question is what is the prognosis? and is there any chance of recovery? if not then quality of life is shot to pieces and then decisions should be made to let the patient go. If brain dead then just the shell remains.

steveangela1

Being a respiratory therapist who was ordered to do so to a patient in a similar situation, the answer is yes. And this was with a mother who was against the vent being cut off. If the doctor can prove with out a shadow of a doubt that the brain is completly dead with ct scans, mris, and the typical organ donor test that the respiratory therapist does, and a flat line eeg, Yes it is up to the doctor.
they can say that this person is clinicly dead, call the morgue no matter what the family wants even if they rae in the hosptial

Mom

Not without a court order but sounds like they could get one.

Calvin of China, PhD

There are some states where the hospital does not need to ask the stupid liberal judges who think they are God. There have been many hospitals almost put out of business by these liberal idiots. They have guidelines that specify a procedure to pull the plug. They use the separation of church and state rulings to make the decisions which are agreed upon by the Supreme Couth. But the states still make the rules concerning their hospitals.

If the family desires the plug not be pulled or a group files legal action, the hospital can not pull the plug.